News

New Renault 5 Turbo drifts into electrification

by Nik Berg
22 September 2022 2 min read
New Renault 5 Turbo drifts into electrification
Photos: Renault

Renault is continuing to celebrate five decades of the R5 by unveiling a tribute to its rally special Turbo and Turbo 2 models. The new version is, of course, fully electric, but has still been designed for driving fun or “wilful exuberance”, according to Renault design boss Gilles Vidal.

A development of the 5 EV concept that debuted last year, the R5 Turbo 3E is a two-seater, rear-drive racer with a motor on each wheel providing a combined output of 375bhp and fed by 42kWh of batteries in the middle under the floor.

It’s built on a tubular chassis, features an FIA-approved roll cage, Plexiglass windows to save weight, and has a 50 degrees of steering angle for creating – and presumably to assist with holding – alarming angles on a drift course.

The cabin features Sabelt seats, race harnesses and steering wheel, a drift stick, and a grey/black/yellow tartan trim. Better still is the instrument cluster: a Tetris-like arrangement of square pods, echoing the madness of the original Gandini interior.

Just like Renault’s original rally cars the boxy 5 goes big on cooling air intakes, but goes even bigger on the aero, with a wing that wouldn’t look out of place on a BriSCA stock car hanging off the sloped tailgate. Deep sills and a ground-scraping front splitter ensure it’s not just the rear end doing the work.

The Turbo 3E has been built for a generation raised on video games and YouTube, so Renault has managed to squirrel away mountings for ten GoPro cameras to capture those web-friendly crashes, while driving modes including “Free play”, “Turbo”, “Track Invader, and “Donut”. The car makes its public debut at Chantilly Arts & Elegance in France on September 25.

Renault is really hammering its heritage in an effort to make electric cars more interesting, having already shown a cute 5 EV concept, and with a new 4 due to be revealed at the Paris Motor Show in October.

Leaning on its motorsport history should gain the approval of nostalgic of old school enthusiasts and a younger audience of gamers and “content consumers” alike – much like Hyundai’s N Vision 74. It’s just a shame that there’s little chance of either entering production.

Read more

The Renault R5 Turbo is smoking hot | Revelations with Jason Cammisa
5 mid-engined Renaults that left drivers in a spin
Interior designer’s Renault 4 is a mobile lounge

You may also like

Alpine A290
Alpine 5 returns: A290_β concept previews electric hot hatch
Mercedes G-Class Popemobile 1
Even the Pope has had an EV Epiphany
Electrogenic MX-5 conversion 2
Easy EV-Swaps Come to the Mazda MX-5
A story about

Your biweekly dose of car news from Hagerty in your inbox

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More on this topic
Hagerty Newsletter
Get your weekly dose of car news from Hagerty UK in your inbox
Share

Thanks for signing up!

Your request will be handled as soon as possible